The Dragon Stone

[ Return to Sea Serpents ]

Location:
Near Greenland

Images:

Description:
The main witness of this sighting was Hans Egede. Egede was a missionary from Norway, often called the Apostle of Greenland. He set up missions among the Inuit, translating Christian texts into their native language. He founded the colony of Godthaab and was responsible for helping set up trade routes with Denmark. Egede also published a book on the natural history of Greenland, accurately describing many of the sea species such as local whales.

In 1741, he published the story of seeing a sea serpent on a voyage in 1734. The book was titled 'A Full and Particular Relation of my Voyage to Greenland, as a Missionary, in the year 1734'.

Translations of Egede's description vary. Comparing various translations, the description seems to be:

• One pair of broad flippers, probably on the front half (an assumption based on the fact the back half is described seperately and mentions no limbs)
• Rough skin with wrinkles
• Possibly some form of shell, scales or shell-like covering. The description isn't clear whether this is something like barnacles growing on the creature or some proper scaling. What is clear is that the whole thing was not covered in scales, as skin is decribed
• Spouting like a whale
• Large size
• Serpent-like tail. This seems to refer to the fact it ended in a point and lacked other bits sticking out, not to imply it was scale covered

Mr. Bing, someone on the ship at the time of the sighting, draw a picture of the serpent. This was redraw by various people. Like the translations, the pictures suffer from creative interpretation. The original shows an animal spouting a cloud. It may have scales or skin folds... the lines are not that distinct. The version in the Illustrated London news draws in very clear scales. Another version, redrawn by Pontoppidan, shows clear scales and the creature spouting a jet of water.

[ Return to Sea Serpents ]